The Hard Life
by allmememe
Summary: This is a story which is told through the perspective of Matthew (starting from chapter 1) and he has to decide between right or wrong. How long can you run away from the truth?
1. Prologue

I heard a voice ringing inside my head, but it seemed to far away to make out any of the words. My thoughts began drifting towards my son Matthew, my pride and joy. I wasn't able to warn them, I thought I had the advantage, but a walker bite on my neck had proven me wrong. And as the tears of a former colleague dripped onto my chest I had realized the threat that loomed over me like a dark cloud, proved that any human that would attempt to justify this new dark era would end up just like any other lab rat. This is just some sick, twisted game.

"My son, my only child please take care of yourself… Please for your father, I love you my boy." My thoughts started to fade away, replacing it with a memory of my son and I when he was just a boy.

"Dad?" Matthew said while licking his ice cream and swatting mosquitos away.

"Huh?" I replied after I came back to reality from drifting in my thoughts.

"Why do people fight?" He asked curiously while eyeing a brute of a man screaming at his girlfriend and insulting her numerous times.

I was actually was surprised my 6 year old son came up with an intelligent question for once. "That's a good question." I replied giving it some thought. "I suppose it's when people's hearts get filled with greed and they begin to occupy themselves with alcohol and money that couldn't buy them real happiness in this world." I noticed my Matthew barely understood a word I had said.

"What's acahole?" he asked with his curious mind.

"Well I'll tell you when you start to get around that age." I said as I chuckled. "And it's called alcohol." I laughed while I patted his hair. "Oh my god!" I said playfully.

"A monster is going to eat you and he is standing right in front of you!" I added.

Matthew giggled and began to run away from me. "Gotta catch me first you monster!" he yelled to me as he tore his way through the park.

"I am coming to get you!" I said roughly, doing my best monster impression.

I could hear him laughing all the way down the street. I began to worry a bit as he began to pick up the pace. "Matthew don't go to far!" I yelled dropping the monster act.

He didn't hear me. "Matthew!" I yelled a bit louder, now running at full speed.

Matthew turned a corner and I followed him, as fast as I could. "Matty, stop!"

I heard him laughing as he ran inside a barn. Out of breath I caught up to him and he started laughing again. I gave him the look to let him know that I wasn't happy. "Matthew." I said in a deep tone.

His eyes shifted eyes to the floor and kicked up the dust and hay that was on the ground. "I'm sorry." he whimpered trying to hide his tears.

"Hey, no need for those tears Matty, I just don't want you disappear on me, okay?" I said unable to stay mad at him.

He nodded wiping the tears out of his eyes.

"Boo-hoo" a voice rang out.

A man stepped out of the shadows, but it was to hard to make out what he looked like, since the sun had set. "Hey, is that you Pete?" he asked sounding astonished.

"It's me Dave!" he laughed.

"Church Dave?" I asked.

"Yeah, brother! Hershal, you and I always sit pretty close together, right?"

"I barely know Hershal, he only talks to you, for some reason." I replied trying not to sound jealous.

"Yeah, that's a bummer." he replied wiping the sweat of his forehead.

Just then I heard an ear-piercing bang and pain surged all through my left leg.

"What the fu-" I stopped myself part way as I screamed because I didn't want Matthew to learn of foul language at the age of 6.

"Daddy you're bleeding!" Matthew said sounding surprised, as if was the first time he saw blood.

"I said not to shoot them Tony!" Dave yelled furiously.

"It had to be done." Said a voice that also emerged from the darkness.

"Hi my name's Tony!" he smirked while extending his arm as if he wanted a handshake. "And I'm Peter! I'm a piece of shit!" Tony said a bit on the crazy side.

Tony seemed to keep on laughing at his horrible me expression.

But I didn't care, there was a child that was with us, but they didn't seem to have a care in the world. Enraged, I gathered the last bit of my strength and stood up, shifting all my weight into my right leg, but my left leg still numb with pain, didn't let me forget about it. With all my power I pulled out my phone and taunted them with it. "I've got the cops on speed-dial all I need to do is press this button." I snickered at the thought.

Tony seemed rather scared, but Dave on the other hand was furious. "Give me that gun!" He barked at Tony.

My eyes opened wide as I pressed the button on my cellphone, Tony had the gun ripped out of his hands by Dave.

"I'll never forget this, you faggot!" he shrieked.

And with that he shot two bullets, one hitting my stomach and the other skimmed my neck, but still cutting it open. I stood there dazed and everything in the room seemed blurry to me as I fell to the floor and closed my eyes. The last thing I heard was Matthew's sweet voice, but I couldn't make out what he said.

Back to the present day and time I felt the same way I had back then, but this was slightly different, it felt like my body was being torn to shreds. "Matthew, I hope in this new world may you find true happiness and not die like me, please do it for your loving father, because I love you." Those were the last words I could muster.

And then I saw a bright light while it was pure blackness outside shining directly into my eyes and then I closed my eyes for the last time and I breathed my last breath of air. It seemed as though my college began to cry harder, but I wasn't able to ask him to not live him to live with regret, because I knew he was thinking that he was to blame for this, but I was in the middle of experiencing death and had no control.


	2. Chapter 1: Mr Maeline

It was an early Sunday morning; life seemed stuck on repeat, doing the same thing over and over, but not today. As of that day and hour, I was official pissed. I was attending my father's funeral.

"Matty!" My mother's voice came from downstairs trying to sound upbeat.

I sighed and made my way downstairs, avoiding my sister's toys that she leaves in the hall. My mother was waiting for me downstairs, dressed in black. "You should get married Matty, it's been awhile since you've had a girlfriend." She said with a hint of remorse.

I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her, narrowing my eyes. "Mother I have to things to tell you." I made a long pause " One, never call me Matty again." I put two fingers in the air "and two, never talk about my girlfriend." I finished.

My mother put her hands together in front of her and looked at the floor and started sobbing. "Matthew, I'm sorry, I know that this is hard on you, but I also need to tell you something." She inhaled a big breath. "Your ex-girlfriend died today, I thought you should know." She said bawling her eyes out. "I just received word from her parents."

My eyes widened at the thought. Is she playing a prank at me, if she is why now? No, she's lying, there's no way in hell she's dead. She wanted to go have a cup of coffee and try to work things out tomorrow after the funeral. She can't be dead, unless she attempted-

My body froze completely; I was trembling and shivering, while at the same time I was engulfed by rage. I looked into my mother's eyes for any glint of a lie, then her face for a small smirk, but I had found none. I raised one of my clenched fists and punched the wall, ignoring the hole that I had created and the pain that tingled as my knuckles began to turn blue.

I looked at my mother, which made her avoid eye contact. "You're lying!" I shouted with gritted teeth. "Fuck You!" I screamed as the tears came. I ran back to my room and tripped on the toys my sister had left scattered there. Without hesitation I stood back up and made my way to my room and slammed the door, breaking the rusty hinge, which caused the door to fall halfway, making it collapse onto the closet.

Unsatisfied, I kicked the door multiple times, until I was out of breath. I checked the door for any holes and when I saw there were none, I jumped on top of it and kept jumping until my left leg broke through, nearly twisting my ankle, almost causing me to howl with pain. Then with all my balled up strength, I ripped off the doorknob and threw it towards the window, smashing the whole thing. It's rather funny because when I found out my dad died yesterday, I threw the same tantrum in the backyard, demolishing the shed. "She didn't commit suicide!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. And with that my rage almost subsided, almost.

That's about when my mother came upstairs and into my room, to bring the real news. "She was torn to shreds." She told me, ignoring my room and the hallway littered by my rage.

I felt even more enraged than before. I came to a conclusion that someone attempted to rape her and killed her, until she was a pile of bones and meat. I was staring at my window barely breathing for a good five minutes, paralyzed with fear.

"And your father shared the same fate!" she said as she quickly covered her eyes with her hands and began sobbing uncontrollably.

"Those sick fucks." I whispered, my voice trembling with rage. "Those sick fucks!" I repeated but this time I screamed it, while constantly punching the wall underneath my window and my veins starting pounding on my head and wrists. "I will-" I paused. "I will… Kill you." And with that I grabbed my bag and began packing, not really sure where to, but all I could care about was revenge, even if it would cost me my own life.

I made my way down the stairs yet once again, with all the things I could gather. When I got outside, I decided to look over the stuff I put in my bag; there was plenty of food and water along with a spare set of clothing, there was also binoculars and also a pistol? I never knew the names of any type of weapon, but the real issue was the fact that I actually packed myself a pistol. I knew I was serious about revenge, but since I had cooled down a bit, I began to realize what I was doing. It was almost like I was debating on killing someone, but I remembered that my father gave me this pistol and I was dead serious on using it, if it came down to that.

I heard a high pitch wail coming from inside and without further hesitation I ran inside. To my surprise I saw a bloody Mr. Maeline, our neighbor crawling through our house. _Crawling?___The thought just crossed my mind. Why was Mr. Mealine crawling around? He looked at me, with an empty eye socket and let out a bloodthirsty snarl and began crawling towards me at an unnatural speed level, like it was really fast.

When he finally managed to get close to me, I noticed that his legs and all were torn off. That made me freak out and I grabbed the umbrella in the pot my mother likes to keep it in and began waving it in front of him to get away. No. For _it_ to get away. I resorted to kicking it when it extended a clearly broken arm, I kicked his arm first, then his face, but I was too scared to say a word, then I backed up with more fear when it began to advance, tripping down the steps outside of the door. I saw my chance when it was in the doorway and slammed the door on its head, to my surprise cutting it off. It's like, the tissue in his neck was weakened enough to pop off.

My mother rushed by my side as quick as she could, only to pass out from utter shock, unfortunately I didn't catch her fall, because I was still paralyzed with fear. With that in mind, I made my way to the bushes and began puking, a lot of my food contents all on the bush of our neighbor, Mr. Maeline.

I was barely able to stand, actually it was me and my mother that skipped the funeral, because of what we just witnessed and my mom has been sitting in her chair for three days in a row, after the funeral was over. I heard from my dad's colleague that he would be coming here, that would stop me from leaving, for now.

I was simply waiting while watching T.V, anxiously awaiting this man's arrival. But I remembered some of my dad's colleagues were assholes, so I needed to know if this guy was the same type of person. I glanced over at my mother, who was staring at the wall, barely moving a muscle. It's kind of creepy actually, once in a while she start crying out of the blue, making me jump out of my skin, as if it was Mr. Maeline. I don't think I'll ever be able to get him out of my head. I decided to ask my mom what this man's name was, if she might know what he's like, I already know she's met this man before.

I got up and made my way into the living room where my mother was sitting. "Mom?" I called. No answer. "Mom!" I said a bit louder. Once again, there was no answer, so I moved in front of her and put my hands on my hips.

"Matthew, can you move darling, this is the best part." She said sounding distant.

"Mom, that's a wall." I said rolling my eyes. She's been like this for the entire three days and it's not just because dad died, it's because my sister was the last one with him and she didn't get her back after the funeral. Eventually I called the police myself and they began asking me a bunch of questions and when they were done they told me to hand the phone over to my mother, who didn't say anything, just listened and then she hung up, she was missing.

"Mom who's this guy coming over shortly?" I asked trying to not get frustrated with her stupidity.

"Edwin, my dear." She said still sounding distant.

That was probably the only real answer I was ever given in the past three days. "Is he a jerk?"

"He's Dr. Edwin, part of the CDC."

I was surprised I was given a legitimate answer in the first time in three days from her. But I nodded respectfully and sat back down and watched T.V, or at least I thought I was watching T.V. The Television was static and I could barely make out the words from the show. I flipped the channel, to the news. But the words were still unclear. I could only make out; _we bring you… News update… Listen… You have… Act… Shoot… In Head… For… _

That was all I could hear, nothing more. I was intrigued by that last few words… _Shoot in head… _Did they mean to shoot _them_ in _the _head? It seemed like the most reasonable explanation, but. An image of our neighbor flashed into my mind, causing me to drop the remote. Just what are we dealing with here?


End file.
